Wednesday September 14, 2011- Going Beyond Player Buy In; Take Out a Mortgage

Continuing my thoughts about the Dresden Files RPG having Mini-GMs instead of players, today I am mentioning real game mechanics that places players into the role of Game Master.

I am an abstract thinker; I like starting with a bigger picture and then moving down into details. The Dresden Files RPG is set up in the way I think. Its starts with the abstracts and then moves into specifics, but the great thing about this are that the players are included from the start. The first gaming session is devoted to creating the campaign, no prep work from the GM other than figuring when and where to play. Once the group is gathered, then City Creation begins-not character creation. The group collectively agrees to what the world will be about and where it takes place. The idea is that the group figures out the setting that will mesh with what they want the themes to be. From there the group moves to locations, allies, enemies, and the like. By the end of this process, not only do you have a flushed out setting; but also, everyone knows it and contributed to it.

How often as a GM, do you create a setting with a five page background that nobody really reads? Here the group has made that five page background together. In the gaming community there is talk about “player buy in.” This is when the players accept the believability of story and invest their own interests into that story. With the Dresden files, the group does not have to buy into the GM’s creation because the group has invested into it before they even make their characters. This process elevates a player to something closer to a GM than most games.